Collections are mysterious things. A book or text can provide an initial model of a collection. Letters, words, sentences, paragraphs collide to form some sense of meaning. Disparate elements, brought in proximity of each other, gain significance through such closeness. These spheres of related elements often coalesce into forms called texts, which are read for their formal coherence as individual entities. Walter Benjamin, while at times interested in the formal attributes of a specific text, alerts us to the possibility of a greater significance through the act of book collecting. Placing texts in new and different proximities to other texts, what Benjamin refers to as \"unpacking,\" can highlight \"lines of flight\" (Deleuze/Guattari, p. 12) that can lead one to knowledge only hinted at in individual texts.
","abstract_html":"<p>Collections are mysterious things. A book or text can provide an initial model of a collection. Letters, words, sentences, paragraphs collide to form some sense of meaning. Disparate elements, brought in proximity of each other, gain significance through such closeness. These spheres of related elements often coalesce into forms called texts, which are read for their formal coherence as individual entities. Walter Benjamin, while at times interested in the formal attributes of a specific text, alerts us to the possibility of a greater significance through the act of book collecting. Placing texts in new and different proximities to other texts, what Benjamin refers to as "unpacking," can highlight "lines of flight" (Deleuze/Guattari, p. 12) that can lead one to knowledge only hinted at in individual texts.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mittleman, David J."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"History, MA","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Robert Dawidoff"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1996,"date_issued":"1996-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1996-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:41:01Z","subjects":["Avant-Garde","Jazz","Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)","College of Sociology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/155","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Robert Dawidoff"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mittleman, David J."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-07-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["History, MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Avant-Garde","Jazz","Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)","College of Sociology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/155"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Collections are mysterious things. A book or text can provide an initial model of a collection. Letters, words, sentences, paragraphs collide to form some sense of meaning. Disparate elements, brought in proximity of each other, gain significance through such closeness. These spheres of related elements often coalesce into forms called texts, which are read for their formal coherence as individual entities. Walter Benjamin, while at times interested in the formal attributes of a specific text, alerts us to the possibility of a greater significance through the act of book collecting. Placing texts in new and different proximities to other texts, what Benjamin refers to as \"unpacking,\" can highlight \"lines of flight\" (Deleuze/Guattari, p. 12) that can lead one to knowledge only hinted at in individual texts.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the College of Sociology: Avant-Garde Collectives in Contact"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Robert Dawidoff"],"dc:creator":["Mittleman, David J."],"dc:date.available":["2020-07-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Collections are mysterious things. A book or text can provide an initial model of a collection. Letters, words, sentences, paragraphs collide to form some sense of meaning. Disparate elements, brought in proximity of each other, gain significance through such closeness. These spheres of related elements often coalesce into forms called texts, which are read for their formal coherence as individual entities. Walter Benjamin, while at times interested in the formal attributes of a specific text, alerts us to the possibility of a greater significance through the act of book collecting. Placing texts in new and different proximities to other texts, what Benjamin refers to as \"unpacking,\" can highlight \"lines of flight\" (Deleuze/Guattari, p. 12) that can lead one to knowledge only hinted at in individual texts.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/155"],"dc:subject":["Avant-Garde","Jazz","Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)","College of Sociology"],"dc:title":["The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the College of Sociology: Avant-Garde Collectives in Contact"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["History, MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:41:01Z"}